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  1. #1
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    WorldCom's Ebbers Weeps at 25-Year Sentence

    Bernard Ebbers, who as the once-swaggering CEO of WorldCom oversaw the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history, wept in court Wednesday when a judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison - the toughest sentence yet in the string of recent corporate scandals.
    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...T&SECTION=HOME

    Justice has been served!

  2. #2
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    Although it sucks to have an old man go to jail; what this guy caused was pure pain for hundreds of thousands of employees and esp shareholders...

    There would of been thousands of people who lost millions when this company filed for BK.
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  3. #3
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    I'm glad to see that they are also taking most of his assets as well. Hopefully other CEO's will learn an important lesson from this.
    "Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them." - Thomas Paine

  4. #4
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    I hope he weeps every day of his miserable life.
    I'm sure someone in jail will make him his special friend and Ebbers will find out what it is like to get ******.

  5. #5
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    Originally posted by blue27
    I hope he weeps every day of his miserable life.
    I'm sure someone in jail will make him his special friend and Ebbers will find out what it is like to get ******.
    ROFL, I didn't know the guy was born in Edmonton, Canada SHAME ON HIM !
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  6. #6
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    I have no sympathy for that man. He should've thought about the consequences of his actions. In my opinion deserves every bit of that sentence, and more.

  7. #7
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    I believe the losses total somewhere in the 200 billion range.

    Can you imagine how many people lost their life savings, retirement funds, livelihood because of this.... Imagine all the suppliers not being paid for their work or even worst, suppliers who supplied this company with millions of $$ worth of hardware, only to get nothing back. The only people who smiled from this is the lawyers who got paid to defend and sue.

    I remember reading about WorldCom a few years ago and it was a hot stock. The CEO was borrowing millions from his company to buy personal things. I think the guy was nice, he donated and so forth. I think he just became overwhelmed and started ignoring his business, cooked the books then it was just a matter of time before it was going to flop...
    Last edited by universal2001; 07-14-2005 at 04:29 PM.
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  8. #8
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    I am glad! No need to be stealing people's money.
    I remember Martha got only 6 months in prision. She even choose her own time to serve her sentence.

  9. #9
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    I am quite satisfied with the sentence. You must be prepared for the actions you make.

    indiaberry Martha got only 6 months for "lying", not stealing money. They dropped the charges on her for that. Quite a different situation there....
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  10. #10
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    I think it is a horrible sentence..

    He should be allowed to head a Charitable Trust, or another corporation that can help the homeless (for example), and use his genius to help others through his business skills.

    Locking up a perfectly good business mind, is just a waste.

  11. #11
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    A perfectly good business mind? A genius? What drugs are you on - the man lost $200b of other peoples money!

  12. #12
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    I tend to think there should some check and balances to prevent such white-collar crimes as first priority.

    If I was an employee of WorldComm, I would be devasted at my stock losses, but I wound't get much salvation from someone been send to jail, after all my money is still gone.

  13. #13
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    Originally posted by -T{H}R-
    A perfectly good business mind? A genius? What drugs are you on - the man lost $200b of other peoples money!
    I am not saying he is a righteous man, but he WAS a great business leader, and a genius from starting the company as a reseller service, he basically created one of largest corporations in the United States. That to me is genius.

    As far as that $200B, thats market cap, I think the accounting scandal only centered around the $10 billion, which is significantly less.

    Yes, I do believe that a heavy fine / selling of assets, a much lighter sentence (maybe 1 year), and the ability for him to serve as a "think tank" would be much better suited than ending his life in jail.

  14. #14
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    1 year? That's hardly punishment. I don't see how you can think that someone who has abused his position and caused that much loss is a genius. If he was such a genius then the company would never have been in the position where an accounting scandal was required to keep it going.

  15. #15
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    Yes justice is served
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  16. #16
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    One year is punishment, along with heavy fines and disposing of assets. He is 63 years old after all, and committed a WHITE collar crime, this isn't murder.

    Don't forget that the problems came around 1999-2000, when companies were inflated (aka "the bubble"), and market caps were getting away on speculation and not real value.

    He is a genius. If you think so or not, the business historians will put him down as one, albeit with a rather unfortunate ending.

  17. #17
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    White collar crime is pretty damaging. Perhaps if you haven't personally lost your entire retirement savings you wouldn't see that viewpoint.

  18. #18
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    Actually, I do quite a bit of investing, so I know the ramifications of white collar crime, and also inefficient corporate management; that doesn't change my opinion one bit.

    PS: With proper investing (that is diversifying to lower risk equities as one gets older) savvy investors shouldn't have lost their entire savings. It is rather unfortunate for those that have though.

  19. #19
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    Well it is unfortunate that a lot of those that lost money were not as accustomed to investing and managing their own funds as was too predominant towards the end of the 90's and the beginning of this century.

  20. #20
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    Indeed, when investing you have to be aware of the risks.

  21. #21
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    Great News! As the Judge said: "I find that a sentence of anything less would not reflect the seriousness of this crime."

    The next “CEO fraud-maker” in line will surly think twice now before committing such crimes.

  22. #22
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    Originally posted by Emil
    One year is punishment, along with heavy fines and disposing of assets. He is 63 years old after all, and committed a WHITE collar crime, this isn't murder.

    Don't forget that the problems came around 1999-2000, when companies were inflated (aka "the bubble"), and market caps were getting away on speculation and not real value.

    He is a genius. If you think so or not, the business historians will put him down as one, albeit with a rather unfortunate ending.

    Tell this to the thousands of people who's lives were destroyed by this scum.
    He is not a genius in any sense of the word. He is an arrogant selfish lowlife who thought of nobody but himself.

    He deserves every minute of the sentence and it is very fitting that he will spend his last days in jail.
    You don't have to kill someone to ruin lives.

  23. #23
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    Originally posted by Emil
    One year is punishment, along with heavy fines and disposing of assets. He is 63 years old after all, and committed a WHITE collar crime, this isn't murder.

    Don't forget that the problems came around 1999-2000, when companies were inflated (aka "the bubble"), and market caps were getting away on speculation and not real value.

    He is a genius. If you think so or not, the business historians will put him down as one, albeit with a rather unfortunate ending.
    You know what happens when stocks crash? Especially huge ones? People loose huge amounts of money. Sure stocks go up and down daily, but they *crash* when someones been cooking the books, and selling their shareholders lies for years.

    How many people do you think committed suicide as a result of loosing their entire life savings? If your actions cause people to commit suicide out of desperation, how is that any less of a crime then manslaughter? He knew what he was doing was wrong, very wrong. He knew the ramifications of his actions, he obviously knew the risks he was taking with said actions? What justice would be served in that? Telling people it's ok to ruin thousands of lives, as long as you do something that brightens a few hundred isn't exactly the kind of message we should be putting out there to further encourage "white collar crime".
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  24. #24
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    C'mon the guys 60 years old cut him some chase.

  25. #25
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    Originally posted by webrat3r
    C'mon the guys 60 years old cut him some chase.
    No. He should have thought of that before being part of the biggest accounting fraud in the U.S.

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